Yoshida Kenkō Quotes

The pleasantest of all diversions is to sit alone under the lamp, a book spread out before you, and to make friends with people of a distant past you have never known.

The truth is at the beginning of anything and its end are alike touching.

The Hour of Death waits for no order. Death does not even come from the front. It is ever pressing on from behind. All men know of Death, but they do not expect it of a sudden, and it comes upon them unawares. So, though the dry flats extend far out, soon the tide comes and floods the beach.

、日ぐらし硯に向ひて、心に移り行くよしなしごとを、そこはかとなく書きつくれば、怪しうこそ物狂ほしけれ。}}

I find it insufferable too the way people spread word about the latest novelties and make a fuss over them. I am charmed by the man who remains unaware of such fashions until they have become quite an old story to everyone else.

If a man strictly observe the rules of his Way, and keep a rein on himself, then no matter what Way it be, he will be a Scholar of renown and be a Teacher of multitudes.

He is of low understanding who spends a whole life irked by common worldly matters.

It is excellent for a man to be simple in his tastes, to avoid extravagance, to own no possessions, to entertain no craving for worldly success.

Ambition never comes to an end.

There are innumerable instances of things which attach themselves to something else, then waste and destroy it. The body has lice; a house has mice; a country has robbers; inferior men have riches; superior men have benevolence and righteousness; priests have the Buddhist law.

Even a false imitation of wisdom must be reckoned as wisdom.

One should write not unskilfully in the running hand, be able to sing in a pleasing voice and keep good time to music; and, lastly, a man should not refuse a little wine when pressed upon him.

In all things I yearn for the past. Modern fashions seem to keep on growing more and more debased. I find that even among the splendid pieces of furniture built by our master cabinetmakers, those in the old forms are the most pleasing.

There's no escaping it-the world is full of lies. It is safest always to accept what one hears as if it were utterly commonplace and devoid of interest.

Leave undone whatever you hesitate to do.